Johannesburg music pick: January 28 2011

It was May 2009 when the Mail & Guardian visited Johannesburg’s post-rock instrumental act Tale of the Son in JSL studios, as they knuckled down to record their debut album.

The band was booked in with producer Matthew Fink (Jim Neversink, Black Hotels) for a week to lay down the tracks that had made up its live-show.
Guitarist Gregoire Pinard and drummer Raymond Orton waxed lyrical in-between takes about their band, it’s music and the distortion pedals and amp set-ups they were planning to use to record that relentless assault that was their live sound.
Their enthusiasm for the coming album was clearly present and it was infectious too, with this critic eagerly awaiting the finished product, which was being touted for an August 2009 release.
Fast forward to January 2011 and Tale of the Son’s self-titled debut album has finally seen the light of day.

Tale of the Son (Deconstruction Recordings) is a 42-minute whirlwind ride through the world of one of Johannesburg’s loudest and most innovative bands and I am going to refrain from singling out individual tracks because, ultimately, Tale of the Son’s album is a collection of movements, a journey that needs to be ­consumed as a whole.

For a two-piece, this band surely does make a lot of noise, but this is not noise for noise’s sake. In fact, it’s anything but. Tale of the Son delicately craft their noise, guitar riff after guitar riff and drum fill after drum fill, to create music that could quite easily be the soundtrack for the apocalypse.
So if noise is your thing and you’re ready to let Tale of the Son take you on a journey, catch their CD launch in Johannesburg this weekend.

Tale of the Son will launch their debut album at The Basement, 62 Juta Street, Braamfontein, in Johannesburg on Saturday January 29. The gig kicks off at 8pm and support will be provided by Deep Fried Man, Jet Black Camaro and Jaco + Z-Dog